St. Columba Cemetery Lookup

Re: St. Columba Cemetery Lookup

The whole business of Scots nicknames, bynames, epithets and middle names is fascinating but too complex a subject to be dealt with here. Nonetheless here are a few titbits (tidbits in Canada) as it relates to my ancestor John Bane Dewar.It is my understanding that ban means fair haired and mor means big or great. Both "mor" and "ban", are descriptive adjectives used more as nicknames that would be used to distinguish between people with the same names living in the same area dand would not normally be carried forward in official records.

I have seen reference to a Gaelic-derived forename, Blane, which apparently means "yellow".

As a descriptive nickname both ban and mor seem to apply to either gender. However the diminutive of mor, Morag only applies to girls and is used as a proper forename. I could not find any reference to it meaning dark-haired. There is a Scots surname Moir and a Greek-derived forename, Moira, but neither as far as I can tell, has the meaning "dark".

There is a website athttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis...which lists middle names and surnames used as middle names recorded in the International Genealogical Index in various Scottish counties. Ban and Bane are amongst those names which appear on the list. But most of the names listed are not those of the children being baptised but the middle names of their fathers which appear in the records. In a few cases, Bane, spelled with an "e" was the surname of the mother or some other person such as godparent or minister and included as the middle name of the baby. In Inverness, where my ancestor was born, the IGIs lists 3 fathers with Ban as middle names and one girl whose baptismal name include Bane, her mother's maiden name.

Specifically referring to "my" John Bane I have only ever seen it in "print" in Donald Keith Dewar's books on the Dewars and don't know where the author got the middle name from. However, the centennial plaque in St. Columba Church commemorating the founders of the congregation lists John B. Dewar suggesting that his nickname had been widely used. Perhaps other documents such as wills and property deeds will be found which include the middle name?

The website ontariogenealogy.com lists the baptism of More Dewar, parents Roderick and Nancy in 1826. Perhaps Anne will uncover the actual documents which will clarify who this person was and how they relate to John Bane, if at all.